Meeting the Leaders of Timor Leste

It was a historical visit to Dili on 19 May 2016. Historical because it was the first one for me and also because it was a meeting with Ramos Horta, Mari Alkatiri and the current Prime Minister of Timor Leste, Dr. Rui Maria de Araujo. There are not many bigger things than presenting your ideas in front of former president, former prime minister and a current minister of a country. It was a rewarding experience.

I was invited by President Xanana Gusmao (yes, you are right, Xanana) to deliver a presentation on Indonesia’s perspective on maritime boundary delimitation and the law of the sea. It was a quite big conference attended by 500 plus participants and a number of prominent figures were there. A number of ministers were present and I had a good opportunity to network. It was certainly a great and invaluable experience to have.

With all speakers

Also present in the conference was the President of ITLOS, Judge Vladimir Vladimirovich Golitsyn, the Indonesian President’s Special Envoy for maritime boundary delimitation between Indonesia and Malaysia, Dr Edy Pratomo, and Prof. V. Love, a prominent international lawyer from the UK. Academically, it was certainly a high profile conference and I undoubtedly learned a lot from this immortals.